Notes

1] When Byron's publisher, John Murray, asked him to provide a "dehcate declension" for a tragedy submitted by Byron's erstwhile friend, Dr. J. W. Polidori, he responded with these verses in a letter of August 21, 1817, first published by Moore in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830). In 1816 Polidori (1795--1821) accompanied Byron to Switzerland and rejoined him in Italy, his vanity was the cause of much amusement, as well as much annoyance. He later advertised his novel The Vampyre (1819) as Byron's. Back to Line

23] Byron refers to a number of unsuccessful recent plays, including the Orestes, Ivan, and Death of Darnley of William Sotheby; the Manuel of Charles Robert Maturin; and the Ina of Mrs. Wilmot; and to his own Manfred, published two months previously. Back to Line

45] My room's so full: the drawing room at 50 Albemarle Street, where Murray transacted business. Gifford: William Gifford (1756-1826), satiric poet and, from 1809 to 1824, editor of the Quarterly Review, an influential Tory periodical published by Murray. Back to Line

46] Hookham Frere: John Hookham Frere (1769-1841), minister to Spain in Pitt's government, translator of Aristophanes, and author of The Monks and the Giants (1818), a burlesque whose poetic technique was soon to influence Byron's Beppo and Don Juan. Back to Line

56] Less commonly known than the poets George Crabbe and Thomas Campbell are: John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), for many years secretary of the Admiralty, a founder of, and frequent contributor to, the Quarterly Review, originator of the term "Conservative" instead of "Tory" as a party designation; and John William Ward (1781-1833), a scholarly and eccentric Canningite M.P., who ultimately became Canning's foreign minister and was created Earl of Dudley (both in 1827). Back to Line

60] Mr. Hammond: George Hammond (1763-1853), a diplomatist, founder of the Quarterly Review and associate of Murray. Dog Dent: the nickname of John Dent, an M.P. concerned in the introduction of the Dog-tax Bill in 1796. Back to Line

63] Malcolm: Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833), soldier, historian, Anglo-Indian statesman and friend of Murray. Hamilton. It is uncertain which of a number of possible Hamiltons is intended.Chantrey: Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), British sculptor, who made a large fortune out of producing busts of his distinguished contemporaries. Back to Line

66] De Staël's late dissolution. Madame de Staël (1766-1817), most famous of French women writers, whom Byron had first met in England and more recently at Coppet, her Swiss home, had just died. Back to Line

67] Madame de Staël's last book would be posthumously published as Considerations sur la Révolution Française, but not by Murray, to whom she had offered it. Back to Line

70] Rocca: her second husband, a Swiss cavalry officer, whom she married secretly in 1811. Back to Line

75] Schlegel: August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845), German critic, poet and translator, a convert to Roman Catholicism, who was living at Coppet during Byron's visit in 1816. Back to Line

88] O'Neill: Elizabeth O'Neill, the reigning tragic actress at Covent Garden. Back to Line